DOI Heft:
Nr. 195 (Mai 1913)
DOI Artikel:Brinton, Christian: Current art, native and foreign
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43452#0406
Current Art, Native and Foreign
Temple Prize, Pennsylvania Academy, I QI 3
YOUTH BY FREDERICK C. FRIESEKE
ture whose superficial semblance they have so
felicitously rendered.
III. The Pennsylvania Academy. Nothing
if not eclectic, the one hundred and eighth annual
exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts required the most exhaustive considera-
tion. The actual total of exhibits was six hundred
and seventy-three, and the number of artists rep-
resented four hundred and ten. The dignified and
spacious rooms of the building at Broad and
Cherry Streets were amply filled, and there was
enough latitude of choice to satisfy those who were
seeking for almost anything in the line of con-
temporary native effort. That indeed was the
trouble with the display, taken as a whole. There
was no irresistible point of attraction, such as the
Dearth room provided last season. Interest was
distributed uniformly over a large area, not con-
centrated upon certain definite spots, with the
result that one left the fine old halls with a sense
of satisfaction but not of stimulation. The affair
was a glorification of the same methods which have
been in vogue at the Academy during the past
decade or more. The pictures were new, that is,
relatively so; the principles involved in their
selection and installation presented no departure
from established precedent.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to carry any
further the exhibition system as it is at present
practised in America. The annual displays at
Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York, the biennial
offering at Washington, and even the yearly inter-
national at Pittsburgh have a way of repeating
their appeal with imposingly monotonous regu-
larity. The institutions in question do not vary
their programme sufficiently. A well-disposed
public brings to them season after season the same
emotions and departs with substantially the same
set of impressions. While by no means an ideal
attempt, the system tried by the Association of
American Painters and Sculptors at the recent
Armory adventure should inspire other organiza-
tions to achieve similar results. There should, if
possible, be an idea back of each and every public
exhibition. Special tendencies should be repre-
sented, and the work of individual men should be
LIII
Temple Prize, Pennsylvania Academy, I QI 3
YOUTH BY FREDERICK C. FRIESEKE
ture whose superficial semblance they have so
felicitously rendered.
III. The Pennsylvania Academy. Nothing
if not eclectic, the one hundred and eighth annual
exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts required the most exhaustive considera-
tion. The actual total of exhibits was six hundred
and seventy-three, and the number of artists rep-
resented four hundred and ten. The dignified and
spacious rooms of the building at Broad and
Cherry Streets were amply filled, and there was
enough latitude of choice to satisfy those who were
seeking for almost anything in the line of con-
temporary native effort. That indeed was the
trouble with the display, taken as a whole. There
was no irresistible point of attraction, such as the
Dearth room provided last season. Interest was
distributed uniformly over a large area, not con-
centrated upon certain definite spots, with the
result that one left the fine old halls with a sense
of satisfaction but not of stimulation. The affair
was a glorification of the same methods which have
been in vogue at the Academy during the past
decade or more. The pictures were new, that is,
relatively so; the principles involved in their
selection and installation presented no departure
from established precedent.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to carry any
further the exhibition system as it is at present
practised in America. The annual displays at
Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York, the biennial
offering at Washington, and even the yearly inter-
national at Pittsburgh have a way of repeating
their appeal with imposingly monotonous regu-
larity. The institutions in question do not vary
their programme sufficiently. A well-disposed
public brings to them season after season the same
emotions and departs with substantially the same
set of impressions. While by no means an ideal
attempt, the system tried by the Association of
American Painters and Sculptors at the recent
Armory adventure should inspire other organiza-
tions to achieve similar results. There should, if
possible, be an idea back of each and every public
exhibition. Special tendencies should be repre-
sented, and the work of individual men should be
LIII